A Perfect Ten (Forbidden Men 5)

With a groan, I buried my face in my hands. “I’m ashamed,” I admitted quietly. When I looked up at her, my face felt hot. “What if I disgust you so much you’ll never look at me the same again? What if—”

“Oren,” she said softly and caught my cheeks in her hands. “I know you better than anyone else on earth. I’m fully aware you’re not perfect. Now, please. Just trust me.”

I nodded and licked my dry lips. “Okay.” Gazing into her calm, soothing smile, I nodded again. “Okay.”

She took my hand and had me crawl under the sheets with her. I was still wearing my bartending gear, but neither of us cared. After I wrapped my arms around her, she nuzzled her face against my shoulder and gave a content sigh.

“So, you know about the first girl,” I started. “Libby.”

“The night your sister—”

“Right.” I was already worried and strained enough as it was; I didn’t want to start thinking about Zoey again, too. Shit. “So, yeah. There was also—”

“Tianna,” Caroline supplied readily, “who also saw your birthmark.”

“Yeah, and then...” Fuck, my mind had gone blank.

“Someone gave you scratch marks on your back last year. Remember? I poured Reese’s latte over your head because of it.”

I hadn’t forgotten that part. But I couldn’t remember the girl who’d caused all that. After searching my brain a moment, I said, “April. She was an Alpha Delta Pi girl...with Blaze.”

“Blaze?” Caroline stiffened against me. “You mean, Blaze from my film class. You slept with Blaze?”

God, I did not like this. I did not like this at all. “Mmm hmm,” I mumbled and closed my eyes tight.

After a moment, she blew out a breath. “Okay,” she finally said. “I hate her fucking guts, but okay. What about...what about Marci Bennett?”

When I groaned aloud, totally giving away my guilt, Caroline jerked away from me and sat up, putting space in the bed between us. “Marci Bennett?” she repeated. “The slut who got Aspen fired from her job, who almost got Noel kicked out of school? Her?”

I gave a small nod, and her eyes flared with horror. “Oh my God,” she whispered.

I lifted my hands. “Now...I only did that one to get some kind of dirt on her to use as blackmail to keep her quiet.”

“And did that work?” Caroline’s chest heaved as she began to breathe harder, but she nodded, still keeping herself somewhat calm. Except the more she struggled to stay calm, the shittier I felt.

I nodded. “Yeah. I got some dirt on her. She...posed for me a little...naked. I have the pictures on my phone to use against her if she ever tries to hurt Noel or Aspen.”

“You have naked picture of her? On your phone? Right now?”

When I bobbed my head once more, she dove at me and ripped my phone out of my back pocket. “Caroline...” I started, aching deep in my bones.

She came to my passcode screen, then bit her lip, looking momentarily thoughtful. A second later, she clicked a few numbers and got in.

My mouth dropped open. “How the hell did you figure out my passcode?”

She barely paid me any attention as she found my picture app and opened it. “It’s Zoey,” she said. “Wasn’t that hard to figure out.”

She started scrolling through all my snapshots, and I panicked, snagging the phone from her hand. “Don’t look at them,” I said.

Snapping me a hard glare, she set her jaw firmly. “Why not? Is she that much better looking than me?”

“No. Of course not. Jesus, don’t do this to yourself, Care. I’ll erase them all. Right now. Enough time’s passed, I’m sure she’s moved on and won’t say anything about Gamble.”

Caroline stared at me with hurt eyes as I hunted up the photos and deleted every single one of them. “There,” I murmured softly, showing her the screen. “They’re all gone.”

She took it from my hand and began to look through all the pictures. “So, Marci, and Blaze, and Kelly whose place I took, plus at least two of her friends. Who else is there?”

I shook my head. “Maybe we should just stop there. This was a bad idea.”